How Abraham Lincoln
Became President
By J. McCan Davis
Centennial Edition
1809 - 1909
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COPyRlGHT DEPOSrr.
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How
Abraham Lincoln
Became President
Centennial Edition
Ar.UAIIAM LINCOLN AS PRLSIDENT.
From an nld steel engraving, after a photograph by Brady.
How Abraham Lincoln
Became President
By J. McCAN DAVIS
Author of " The Breaking of the Deadlock," " Abraham Lincoln :
His Book," etc.
Centennial Edition
THE ILLINOIS COMPANY
SPRINGFIELD. ILLINOIS
1909
LIBPARY of CONGRESS
^ *to CoDies Recefve^
FEB 4 1909
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Copyright. 1909
by
J. McCan Davis
Engravings made by the Capitol Engraving Company,
Springfield, Illinois
Prc« of the Henry O. Shei>ard Company
To the Soldiers of the Civil War,
Comrades of My Father,
the heroic men who offered their lives that
government of the people, by the people, for the people
shall not perish from the earth."
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Foreword.
Abraham Lincoln was in no sense an accident. His
nomination for President in i860 surprised the country.
Yet it was the logical result of a series of events that had
extended over a period of many years. This was not
wholly clear then, but it is plain enough now. It is the
purpose of this little volume to tell briefly the story of
his preparation for his colossal task and of the events
that made him, almost inevitably, as it now seems, Chief
Magistrate of the nation.
There have been many great men in the world, and
the future will bring forth more great men. But the
world has produced only one Abraham Lincoln, and we
may not expect another in all the generations yet unborn.
The product of an age, he belongs to all ages.
J. McC. D.
Springfield, Illinois,
October 24, 1908.
CONTENTS.
PACE
Chapter I — Dreams of a Boy in the Wilderness 17
Chapter II — Foundation of Greatness in a Frontier Village 21
Chapter III — A Prophecy — "Might Be Governor Some Day".. 24
Chapter IV — Quits Politics — Contentment "on the Circuit" 27
Chapter V — The Awakening — "Back Into Politics" 31
Chapter VI — Fame Grows — " Lincoln for Vice-President " 35
Chapter VII — The New Issue — " A House Divided " 41
Chapter VIII — Lincoln-Douglas Debates — Antagonists, Personal
Friends 46
Chapter IX — Lincoln's Question at Freeport — the Answer 50
Chapter X — After the Debates — A Presidential Possibility 53
Chapter XI— "What's the Use Talking of Me for President? ". . 56
Chapter XII — Lincoln Sees "Fighting Chance" — Wants Illinois
Delegation ^"
Chapter XIII — Story of a Fence Rail — Convention Stampeded.. 63
Chapter XIV — Seward Almost a Certainty — " Lincoln Looming
Up" 73
Chapter XV — The National Convention — Lincoln the Victor 85
Chapter XVI — " Farewell " 93
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
Abraham Lincoln as President Frontispiece
The Author 10
Site of Abraham Lincoln's Birthplace 16
The Emigration from Kentucky 20
Grave of Lincoln's Mother 23
Lincoln Cabin in Indiana 26
Little Pigeon Baptist Church, Spencer County, Indiana 28
Lincoln Home in the Sangamon Bottom, Near Decatur, 111., in 1830. 30
New Salem 34
An Election Return — Lincoln's First Official Document 36
Abraham Lincoln in 1 858 40
Stephen A. Douglas 44
Gov. Richard J. Oglesby 62
Oglesby and Hanks Bringing the Rails from the Sangamon Bottom.. 64
John Hanks 66
Lincoln Addressing Decatur Convention, 1860 68
Gen. John M. Palmer 70
The Chicago Wigwam 72
" A Rail Old Western Gentleman " 76
Great Lincoln Rally, 1860 79
Lincoln Home, Springfield, 1860 84
Lincoln's Departure from Springfield 86
Lincoln's First Inauguration, 1861 88
President Lincoln and His Cabinet 92
A TRIBUTE.
Abraham Lincoln was not a deity. It is among the glories
of the human race that he was a man. He stands on a pinnacle
alone, the greatest man in our history — the most wondrous man
of all the ages. The world will forever marvel at his origin and
his career. Whence came this wondrous man? Back of Lin-
coln — generations before he was born — events happened
which helped to shape and mold his destiny. No man escapes
this inheritance from the past. We can not know what seeds
were sown a thousand years ago. We can not see far beyond
the log cabin in the wilderness of Kentucky. He came to us
with no heritage save the heart and the brain which came from
the fathomless deeps of the unknown.
He was endowed with that divine gift of imagination which
enabled him to behold the future. The emancipation proclama-
tion loomed in his mind when, as an unknown, friendless youth,
he stood on the levee in New Orleans and saw a slave auction
thirty years before the Civil War. As he sat in the White
House he saw beyond battles, beyond the end of the war,
beyond the restoration of peace, a reunited country — the
grandest nation on the globe, under a single and triumphant
flag, moving down the centuries to its glorious destiny.
— From the oration on '' Tlie Tzvo Giants of Illinois," by
J. McCcin Davis.
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CHAPTER I.
THE DREAMS OF A BOY IN THE WILDERNESS.
It is quite possible that Abraham Lincoln, a little boy
in Kentucky, dreamed that some day he would be Presi-
dent of the United States. Such has been the dream of
many another American boy, inspired by the hopeful
encouragement of a fond mother. But the chances are
that the mind of Abraham Lincoln, the boy, did not soar
so far away as the White House in Washington.
When Abraham Lincoln was born (February 12,
1809), this nation was yet very young. A great many
things were to be demonstrated. The Declaration of
Independence, whose author was still living, was the most
vital thing of the time, proclaiming this the land of
equality and opportunity. Yet not many had, as very
many came to have in later years, the magnificent concep-
tion of the limitless possibilities that lie before every
American youth.
The new republic had chosen its best and its greatest
men to fill the high office of President. But none had
been what the world has since come to call a '' self-made
man." Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison — all
had been of gentle birth, all had been respectably edu-
cated in the way decreed by the custom of the time.
Although it was the shibboleth of the new republic
that " all men are created equal," it was yet to be shown
17
18 How Abraham Lincoln Became President.
that a boy born of the humblest parentage, in poverty
and obscurity, without educational advantages, could rise,
by the sheer force of his own efforts, to the most exalted
office in the land.
Little Abraham, son of Thomas and Nancy Lincoln,
in the wilderness of Kentucky, found little in his sur-
roundings to suggest great things. He learned in time,
from the pioneer schoolmaster and from a few books that
he came upon by chance, certain facts about the nation's
history and some stories of its great men. Later, still a
boy, but transplanted to another wilderness in another
State, he got possession of Weems' " Life of Washing-
ton," the most popular biographical work of that day.
Washington, " father of his country," loomed as the
greatest figure in American history, and young Abraham
found in the character portrayed in this book an ideal that
persisted to the end of his life.
George Washington ! We can hardly suppose that
Abraham, reading his book by the flaring light of a fire-
place in a log cabin, had any thought that he could ever
be as great or as world-famous as this wondrous man.
George Washington was so exalted a character — he
seemed to tower so high above common man — as to be
utterly beyond the ambition, beyond the imagination, of
this boy of the frontier.
Yet a strange ambition very soon set the youthful
mind aflame. It was the ambition to rise above his sordid
environment — to " get up higher." Not many books
were within his reach, but he read them all — and then
read them again. Thus he acquired something that
became a distinguishing characteristic — the gift of
How Abraham Lincoln Became President. 19
thoroughness — that was predominant throughout his
Hfe. He learned to master every attempted task. Let
him investigate something, he would go to the bottom ;
he would not leave it until he knew all about it. This was
the great secret of his self-education — the one great fact
that transplanted the university to the fireside of a log
cabin in a far-off wilderness.
" The short and simple annals of the poor " is Lin-
coln's own description of his youthful career. His birth
in Kentucky, amid the humble surroundings common to a
pioneer community — his single year of instruction under
the pioneer schoolmaster — his bitter struggle with pov-
erty, beginning at his birth and continuing into the years
of manhood — is a story familiar to every schoolboy. As
Lincoln emerged from boyhood, he heard of a man for
whom he conceived a high admiration. The man was
Henry Clay of Kentucky. He had been a member of
Congress for many years; he had achieved fame as an
orator, and he was rapidly becoming the idol of a large
part of the American people.
Henry Clay became the ideal statesman in the mind
of Abraham Lincoln, even before he had left the rude hut
which was the home of Thomas Lincoln and his little
family in Indiana. The first year of young Lincoln in
Illinois was passed in Macon county, not far from Deca-
tur. Here he helped " clear " a small farm in the Sanga-
mon bottom, and made the rails that were destined to
achieve renown and to become no small factor in carrying
Lincoln far beyond his most extravagant dreams of place
and power.
CHAPTER II.
FOUNDATION OF GREATNESS LAID IN A FRONTIER VILLAGE.
The ensuing six years were extremely important ones
for Abraham Lincohi. They were the year (1831-1837)
which he spent in the pioneer village of New Salem. This
was one of the little towns that had sprung up along the
Sangamon river and whose inhabitants had some am-
bitious hopes with respect to the future. The atmosphere
of New Salem was not much different from that in which
Lincoln had passed all of his earlier years. Its inhabitants
were pioneer men and women of rough exterior, but of
kind, generous, honest impulses. There were not many
counterfeits among them. They were genuine men and
women. In this atmosphere — amid this free, unselfish
life — here where men met upon one common level —
here where there were no classes, no aristocracy — only
men, whose strongest tie binding them together was the
brotherhood of man — Abraham Lincoln completed the
foundation of his great character and his marvelous
career.
It was at this crude frontier village that Lincoln's
ambition began to expand. He had first entered the vil-
lage early in 1831 as a flat-boat man on his way to New
Orleans. When he returned -^ few months late- he h^id had
his first glimpse of the world ; and in the far-off Southern
city he had gotten his first clear notion of the enormity of
21
22 How Abraham Lincoln Became President.
human slavery ; for he had witnessed a slave auction —
and there were planted the seeds of the emancipation
proclamation. " If I ever get a chance to hit that thing,"
he said, as he looked on in horror, "by the eternal, I'll
hit it hard."
Within a few months after settling at New Salem Lin-
coln became a candidate for the Legislature. Then, before
the election came around, he became a soldier in the
Black Hawk War. His first venture in politics proved a
failure, for he was defeated as a legislative candidate ;
but two years later (in 1834) he sought the same office
again, and this time was successful. Meanwhile he had
become a store-keeper and the village postmaster. He
took up surveying and found a great demand for his pro-
fessional services. He read law — an ambition formed,
no doubt, some years before, when he had read the revised
statutes of Indiana — and was duly licensed as a lawyer.
He was still a member of the legislature when he put his
personal belongings in a pair of saddle-bags and rode a
borrowed horse to Springfield, which henceforth was his
place of residence.
Lincoln's years at New Salem were years of progress,
of climbing, of looking upward and onward. Gradually
his self-confidence developed ; he found that he could do
things — that he could inspire his neighbors with con-
fidence in him — that, in short, there were many possibili-
ties for him in the future.
GRAVE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S MOTHER IN i860.
From an old engraving.
CHAPTER III.
AN EARLY PROPHECY — " WOULDn't BE SURPRISED IF ABE
LINCOLN GOT TO BE GOVERNOR SOME DAY."
Although Lincohi Hvcd precisely the life of those
around him — joining in the rough-ar.d-tunible sports of
the Clary's Grove boys, and being, so far as external
appearances gave any clue, only a tall, awkward product
of the frontier — his extraordinary ability was not with-
out recognition on the part of his neighbors. He was
obviously and undeniably superior to most of them in
mental equipment. They came to him to have him write
their deeds and their legal papers. He was frequently
consulted on questions of law. The people were not long
in discovering that the flat-boat man, store-keeper, post-
master, surveyor and legislator was rapidly towering
above them.
No doubt Lincoln had ambitions that carried him far
beyond the confines of New Salem. Perhaps he expected
some day to go to Congress. He had long since made
the discovery that Congressmen, and even United States
Senators, were, after all, only " common clay," and that
even these high positions were not to be considered unat-
tainable.
There were men in New Salem shrewd enough to
perceive something of Lincoln's possibilities. " Often,"
testifies one of the surviving inhabitants of New Salem,
24
How Abraham Lincoln Became President. 25
" I have heard my brother-in-law, Dr. Duncan, say he
would not be surprised if Abe Lincoln got to be governor
of Illinois." (Statement of Daniel Greene Burner, Berry
and Lincoln's grocery clerk, to the author in 1895.) Yet
Dr. Duncan was probably far ahead of the other residents
of New Salem as a prophet respecting Lincoln ; for not
many of them were able to perceive the attributes of a
governor of Illinois in the tall, awkward surveyor who
went about locating corner-stones, or the perambulating
postmaster who went about delivering letters from the
ample interior of his hat.
His candor and honesty are shown clearly in his first
appeal for public office. When he became a candidate
for the Legislature, in 1832, he distributed a handbill
which set forth his " platform." He concluded :
" Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition.
Whether that be true or not, I can say, for one, that I
have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed by
my fellow men by rendering myself worthy of their
esteem. How far I shall succeed in gratifying this am-
bition is yet to be developed. I am young and unknown
to many of you. I was born, and have ever remained, in
the most humble walks of life. I have no wealthy or
popular relatives or friends to recommend me. My case
is thrown exclusively upon the independent voters of the
county ; and, if elected, they will have conferred a favor
upon me for which I shall be unremitting in my labors to
compensate. But, if the good people in their wisdom
shall see fit to keep me in the background, I have been
too familiar with disappointments to be very much
chagrined."
CHAPTER IV.
IN CONGRESS — DISAPPOINTED — QUITS POLITICS — FINDS
CONTENTMENT " ON THE CIRCUIT."
Lincoln's admiration for Henry Clay carried him
naturally into the Whig party. Although elected to the
Legislature on local issues, he was an outspoken Whig;
and it was as a Whig that he sought election to Congress,
an ambition in which he was finally successful. Lincoln's
career in Congress, covering only one term, has been fre-
quently pronounced a " failure." And so it was, from the
viewpoint of achievement in Congress, as well as with
respect to popularity at home. But the fault was charge-
able less to Lincoln than to his party. Lincoln's service
in Congress came during the Mexican War, and the
Whig party was on the unpopular side ; it had opposed
the war in the belief that it was being waged in the inter-
est of the slave power. At the end of his term the Spring-
field district sent a new Congressman to Washington.
Lincoln asked for a federal appointment; he wanted to
be Commissioner of the General Land Office; but he
failed to get the office. He was offered an appointment
as Governor of Oregon Territory; but he declined to
accept it, and he came home, chagrined and dejected,
resolved to quit politics forever.
After 1849 Lincoln's retirement from politics was
complete. In 1850 Congress enacted the famous " com-
27
How Abraham Lincoln Became President. 29
promise," a series of measures designed to settle the con-
flict between the North and the South with respect to
slavery. Thus was removed apparently the only vital
issue that remained to divide political parties. True,
there were a good many " issues," but they were com-
paratively unimportant; the party organizations were
held together mainly by those who cared everything for
office, but much less for political principles.
For a half dozen years Lincoln practiced his profession
assiduously. He followed the custom of the day and on
horseback, in company with other lawyers, traveled from
county to county, trying cases before the judges who
generally traveled with the lawyers. Lincoln by degrees
became one of the leading lawyers of his time in Illinois.
There were other lawyers whose fees were larger, but it
may well be doubted if, in point of ability and of success
at the bar, Lincoln had any superior among his profes-
sional contemporaries.
These were years of comparative contentment for Lin-
coln. Year by year he saw his professional prestige and
his professional income increasing. It was a most con-
genial life, this old-fashioned " riding the circuit " ; for it
threw him in the company of the most brilliant, accom-
plished and agreeable men of the time. As a circuit-
riding lawyer, Lincoln not only acquired his unrivaled
reputation as a story-teller, but he completed his prepara-
tion for the great things he was soon to do — for the
great career which was now about to open, but of which
he knew absolutely nothing.
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CHAPTER V.
THE AWAKENING — " BACK INTO POLITICS " — A NEW
PARTY — LINCOLN ITS REAL LEADER.
The year 1854 marked the reentry of Abraham Lin-
coln into political life. It was the year of his awakening
from the peaceful life on the circuit. Stephen A. Douglas,
then United States Senator from Illinois — a man who
had rapidly risen to the leadership of his party in the
United States Senate and who was popularly regarded
as the nation's foremost statesman — forced through Con-
gress the measure that became known as the Kansas-
Nebraska Bill. This bill in effect repealed the Missouri
Compromise of 1820, which had prohibited slavery in the
unorganized territory north of 36° 30', and gave the
people of a territory, prior to the formation of a State
government, the right to determine for themselves
whether or not they should have slavery. This was the
doctrine of " popular sovereignty," thenceforward linked
inseparably with the name of Stephen A. Douglas.
The Kansas-Nebraska Bill necessarily reopened the
slavery question, for it made it possible to form several
slave States from the new territory in the Northwest.
The storm of opposition which swept over the North
aroused Lincoln. He put aside his law books and once
more took up the discussion of political questions. Illi-
nois became the storm center of the entire nation and
31
32 How Abraham Lincoln Became President.
gradually a new figure emerged from the political chaos
of the day. The strange form was the circuit-riding law-
yer, the quaint story-teller, the skilled debater, Abraham
Lincoln.
The year 1854 found the old parties rapidly going to
pieces. The Whig party in truth was already dead. Its
last presidential campaign was that of 1852; and although
its leaders had made the customary prophecies of victory
the party had been badly defeated. In Illinois the Whig
State convention of 1852 had been a most perfunctory
affair. An interesting and significant incident was the
adoption of resolutions on the death of Henry Clay, whose
life went out almost coincidently with that of the party
with which his name had been so long identified. As for
Lincoln there is no record or recollection that he was
present at the Whig convention of 1852; his name does
not appear in the list of delegates ; for he was " out of
politics."
But the year 1854 witnessed the breaking down of the
old party lines. The Kansas-Nebraska Bill proved a
severe blow to the Democratic party. In Illinois many
men who had been prominent as Democratic leaders
deserted the party and opposed the Kansas-Nebraska
measure. The Whigs drifted aimlessly about. Very
soon there was talk of a new party. But two years elapsed
before the new party actually appeared in organized form.
In the meantime Lincoln, like many of his Whig asso-
ciates, was a man without a party. He was slow —
exceedingly slow — to break the old party ties. He kept
away from a convention held in Springfield in 1854 for
the purpose of organizing a new party — not that he was
How Abraham Lincoln Became President. 33
necessarily out of sympathy with its object, but he was
not yet fully prepared to admit that a new political party
was necessary.
The events of the ensuing two years rapidly dissipated
Lincoln's doubts as to the expediency of a new party.
With the opening of the year 1856 Lincoln was eager to
join in the new party movement. When a handful of
editors met in Decatur February 22, 1856, he was there
in consultation with them. There it was that the pre-
liminary steps were taken for the organization of the
Republican party of Illinois. Three months later (May
29), the first Republican State convention was held in
Cloomington and there Lincoln made a wonderful speech
which swayed the convention and which infused into the
new party that spirit which solidified and held it together
and made it ultimately triumphant.
From the beginning, Lincoln was the real leader of
the Republican party in Illinois. Other men were the
nominal leaders ; other men were chairmen of committees
and conventions ; but the man whose influence was most
powerful — the man whose intellect dominated the new
party and whose ideas became its first principles — was
Abraham Lincoln.
By 1855 Lincoln had achieved such standing as to
make him a formidable condidate for United States
Senator. He needed only a few votes to elect him; but
he, an anti-Nebraska Whig, could not get these, and he
gave way to Lyman Trumbull, an anti-Nebraska Demo-
crat.
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CHAPTER VI.
HIS FAME GROWS — " LINCOLN FOR VICE-PRESIDENT " —
FOR PARTY HARMONY.
By 1856 the name of Abraham Lincoln was coming to
be known in other States. Yet he did not regard himself,
nor did his friends regard him, as in any sense a national
figure. The Republican national convention was held at
Philadelphia June 17 of that year, and no one was more
surprised than Mr. Lincoln himself when the news came
to Illinois that he had received no votes for Vice-
President on the ticket that v/as to be headed by John C.
Fremont. Lincoln was attending court at Urbana, and
when a friend read to him from a Chicago newspaper the
announcement of the ballot for Vice-President he said
indifferently : " I do not suppose the Lincoln referred to
is myself." Then he added, half facetiously : " There is
another great man of the nam.e of Lincoln in Massa-
chusetts."
Lincoln was intensely active in the campaign of 1856.
It is said that he made more than fifty speeches during the
summer and autumn. The speeches were not of the short,
flippant, catchy variety so common in latter-day politics,
delivered at the rate of three or four or a dozen a day, as
in modern times. Three or four speeches a week was the
rule, and the audiences often were composed largely
of men who had traveled twenty miles or farther by
35
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ELECTION RETURN WRITTEN BY LINCOLN.
This was Mr. Lincoln's first official document. While a resident of New
Salem he frequently was clerk of election.
How Abraham Lincoln Became President. 37
wagon or on horseback over prairie roads. The speeches
were long, but the people heard them through with eager-
ness. It was no uncommon thing in that day for an audi-
ence at a political meeting to be held by a public speaker
spellbound for three or four hours at a time. As Lincoln
went about the State talking against the Kansas-Nebraska
Bill and " squatter sovereignty " he added vastly to his
reputation as a public speaker and he rapidly became the
recognized leader of the Republican party in Illinois.
The new Republican party lost the State of Illinois in
the national election of 1856, for the reason that the con-
servatives, including many Old Line Whigs, refused to
support Fremont and voted for Fillmore; but on the
State ticket the new party had been united and it elected
its candidate for governor, William H. Bissell. The
result thus showed that the Republicans were now in the
majority in the State. The thing needed was party har-
mony, and Lincoln set about to unite and solidify the new
party, " Let by-gones be by-gones," said he ; " let past
dififerences as nothing be; and with steady eye on the
real issue let us reinaugurate the good old ' central idea '
of the republic. We can do it. The human heart is with
us ; God is with us. We shall again be able, not to
declare that ' all States are equal,' nor not that ' all citizens
as citizens are equal,' but to renew the broader, better
declaration, including both these and much more, that
' all men are created equal '."
It was apparent to the far-seeing mind of Lincoln that
the year 1858 was to witness an epoch-making combat in
Illinois. The second term of Stephen A. Douglas as
United States Senator was about to expire. The " Little
38 How Abraham Lincoln Became President.
Giant " not only was a candidate for reelection, but all
over the country he was regarded as the probable nominee
of the Democratic party for President in i860. Twice
(in 1852 and again in 1856), he had come near winning
that honor, and now if the southern wing of the Demo-
cratic party could be placated he was almost certain to be
the presidential nominee. Douglas had risen to a most
exalted place in public life. He was then recognized as
the leading statesman of the country. His doctrine of
" popular sovereignty," as enunciated in the Kansas-
Nebraska Bill of 1854, had become the leading political
issue of the time. It had given birth to the new Repub-
lican party, organized to combat " popular sovereignty "
and the extension of slavery. Lincoln must have fore-
seen that the senatorial contest of 1858 was to be a test
of strength between the old and the new parties. It was
a mere incident that Senator Douglas was seeking reelec-
tion ; the real conflict was one of principle and Illinois
was destined to be the battle-ground. Here the line of
battle was to be marked out for the greater combat that
was to occur two years later.
Douglas was not without his troubles within his own
party. He had broken with President Buchanan on the
Lecompton question. Buchanan wanted Kansas admitted
with the Lecompton constitution, which permitted slavery.
Douglas declared that the Lecompton constitution had
been fraudulently adopted, that it did not represent the
will of the people, and that the attempt to bring Kansas
into the Union as a slave State was an outrage and a
flagrant violation of his " great principle of popular sover-
eignty." When the Democratic State convention, assem-
How Abraliam Lincoln Became President. .iO
bled at Springfield April 21, 1858, adopted a resolution
approving the course of Senator Douglas and declaring
for his reelection, a number of delegates, Buchanan
Democrats, withdrew and held a separate convention.
But the anti-Douglas movement within the Democratic
party was not formidable. Every member of the lower
house of Congress from Illinois stood by him and his
leadership of the party in Illinois was not seriously dis-
puted. No other Democrat had the temerity to be candi-
date for Senator against him.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
As he appeared at the time of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates in 1858. Mr.
Lincoln aid not wear a beard until after his election to the' Presidency in
i860.
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CHAPTER VII.
THE NEW ISSUE — "a HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF
CAN NOT STAND."
The Republican State convention was held at Spring-
field June 1 6, 1858. For some time beforehand it was
generally conceded that Abraham Lincoln would be
brought forward by the convention as the party's candi-
date for United States Senator to oppose Senator Doug-
las. Lincoln carefully prepared a speech for the occasion.
He was not unaware of the great responsibility that
devolved upon him and every word to be uttered received
the most thoughtful consideration. He was about to give
expression to a thought that had gradually evolved in his
mind out of the controversy of the preceding four years.
He was to promulgate a new issue. The new doctrine
was stated so boldly that it startled many of Lincoln's
own followers, who declared he had made a " political
blunder." But Lincoln had carefully weighed his words ;
he had anticipated and was ready to answer every criti-
cism ; and he held to the issue there proclaimed, not only
through that memorable campaign, but until he had lived
to see it justified by the great events that swiftly followed.
This speech of Lincoln passed into history as the
" house-divided " speech — a designation given it from
the following passage:
" ' A house divided against itself can not stand.' I
41
42 How Abraham Lincoln Became President.
believe this Government can not endure permanently half
slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be
dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall ; but I do
expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one
thing, or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery
will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the
public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course
of ultimate extinction, or its advocates will push it for-
ward till it shall become alike lawful in all the States —
old as well as new, North as well as South."
Immediately Douglas savagely attacked the doctrine
thus boldly proclaimed by Lincoln. He declared it was
" sectional " and " revolutionary." " Why can not this
Government exist divided into free and slave States?"
thundered Douglas. " Washington, Jefferson, Franklin,
Madison, Hamilton and Jay and the great men of that day
made this Government divided into free and slave States
and left each State perfectly free to do as it pleased on
the subject of slavery. Why can it not exist on the same
principles on which our fathers made it ? "
The attack of Douglas brought the attention of the
whole country to the " house divided " speech of Mr.
Lincoln. Very soon every eye was turned to Illinois.
Lincoln had given a new aspect to the slavery ques-
tion. Up to that time every attempt at legislation affect-
ing slavery had been based on the theory of compromise.
There had been two famous " compromises " — the Mis-
souri compromise of 1820 and the compromise of 1850.
Both had been founded on the theory that the institution
of slavery was to be protected and perpetuated. The
opposition had been directed, not against the institution
How Abraham Lincoln Became President. 43
itself, but against the spread of slavery into the territory
dedicated to freedom. But here was a new doctrine pro-
claiming that the day of compromise was at an end, that
this Government could not permanently endure half slave
and half free, that it must become eventually all slave or
all free.
STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS.
His Kansas-Nebraska Bill of 1854 caused Abraham Lincoln to re-enter
politics: and his debates with Lincoln in 1858 made the latter a national fig-
ure and a presidential possibility.
Senator Douglas and Mr. Lincoln were long political rivals but always
personal friends. When Mr. Lincoln was elevated to the Presidency, Mr.
Douglas, defeated candidate for the office, became one of his loyal supporters.
At the inaugural ceremonies, March 4, 1861, he held the President's hat as a
token of his sustaining friendship. At Springfield, 111., April 25, he delivered
a speech of great eloquence and force, appealing to his followers throughout
the nation to rally to the support of the Union, declaring that " the shortest
way to peace is the most stupendous and unanimous preparation for war."
He died in Chicago June 3, 1861.
The "Little Giant": A Tribute
American history furnishes no higher example of
patriotism than the conduct of Stephen A. Douglas in
1361. There was peculiar pathos in his death. Lin-
coln lived a finished life; his great mission was accom-
plished, and he passed beyond the purple hills in the
resplendent glory of an imperishable fame. Douglas
died in the noonday of life, his life-ambition unrealized,
with magnificent possibilities yet unfulfilled. The Amer-
ican people owe much to Stephen A. Douglas ; and
if Abraham Lincoln could speak once more he would
gladly pay his antagonist the tribute of praise that belongs
to a great and patriotic man.
From the oration, ^'The Tivo Giants of Illinois,"
by J. McCan Davis.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES — ANTAGONISTS ON THE
STUMP BUT PERSONAL FRIENDS.
As the campaign started out, Lincoln was obliged to
be content with following Douglas and replying to him as
opportunity offered. He found himself at a distinct dis-
advantage ; he was obliged to talk almost entirely to
Republican audiences, and he had to bear the charge of
" annoying " Judge Douglas by this " unfair " procedure
of " following him about the State." Lincoln longed for
an opportunity to talk to those who opposed him — to the
voters who were followers of Douglas. It was not enough
that he bolster up the faith of his own followers and
inspire them with enthusiasm ; what he desired most to
do was to make converts to the new party. He reasoned
that he could best do this by speaking with Senator Doug-
las from the same platform and to the same audience.
He therefore challenged Douglas to a series of joint
debates, and Douglas accepted the challenge, with the
result that debates were held at seven cities in the State —
Ottawa, Freeport, Jonesboro, Charleston, Galesburg,
Quincy and Alton — beginning August 21 and ending
October 15.
These debates at once attracted national attention.
Douglas had many advantages. He was of " world-wide
renown." In prestige as a statesman he was without a
4G
How Abraham Lincoln Became President. 4?
peer. He was rated, too, as the greatest debater in the
United States Senate. As for Lincoln it may be said that
he was well known, but that probably one hundred other
men in the United States could claim as great or greater
distinction than he had yet attained. Lincoln himself felt
keenly the disparity between himself and Douglas in point
of reputation. In these debates, as on previous occasions,
he expressed his admiration for his famous opponent.
He was free to acknowledge that Douglas had reached a
place far higher than any he himself could hope to
attain. " His name fills the nation and is not unknown
even in foreign lands," said Lincoln. " I affect no con-
tempt for the high eminence he has reached. So reached
that the oppressed of my species might have shared with
me in the elevation, I would rather stand on that emi-
nence than wear the richest crown that ever pressed a
monarch's brow."
In personal appearance and style of oratory, there was
the most marked diflference between Douglas and Lincoln.
In stature, Lincoln towered an even twelve inches above
his rival. Douglas, in his manner of speaking, was digni-
fied, august and forceful. He was possessed of a deep,
sonorous voice. He spoke with great deliberation and his
well-rounded sentences came out with tremendous impres-
siveness. He rarely indulged in anecdotes and there were
few attempts at humor. He was desperately in earnest.
In majesty and convincing power of speech, Douglas has
had few equals among American orators.
Lincoln was the antithesis of Douglas. " He was lean
in flesh and ungainly in figure," says W. H. Herndon,
his law partner and biographer. " When he began speak-
48 How Abraham Lincoln Became President.
ing, his voice was shrill, piping and unpleasant. His
manner, his attitude, his dark, yellow face, wrinkled and
dry, his oddity of pose, his diffident movements — every-
thing seemed to be against him, but only for a short
time. * * * As he proceeded he became somewhat
animated. * * * His style was clear, terse and com-
pact. ♦ * * He spoke with effectiveness and to
move the judgment as well as the emotions of men.
* * * In defense of the Declaration of Independence
— his greatest inspiration — he was ' tremendous in the
directness of his utterances; he rose to impassioned elo-
quence, unsurpassed by Patrick Henry, Mirabeau, or
Vergniaud, as his soul was inspired with the thought of
human right and Divine justice.' His little gray eyes
flashed in a face aglow with the fire of his profound
thoughts ; and his uneasy movements and diffident man-
ner sunk themselves beneath the wave of righteous indig-
nation that came sweeping over him. Such was Lincoln
the orator,"
The times were intensely partisan and both combat-
ants suffered unjust attacks in the opposition newspapers.
The Chicago Times portrayed Lincoln as an ignorant,
illiterate fellow, who scarcely could utter a sentence with-
out a grammatical blunder. This was the man who, a few
years later, was to be acknowledged one of the great
masters of the English tongue.
But the personal relations between Douglas and Lin-
coln were most cordial throughout the debates, as they
always had been. On the stump Douglas frequently
assumed a belligerent attitude ; but this was merely a part
of the forensic combat. " My second reason for not hav-
How Abraham Lincoln Became President. 49
ing a personal encounter with the Judge," said Lincoln on
one occasion, " is that I do not believe he wants it him-
self. [Laughter.] He and I are about the best friends in
the world and when we get together he would no more
think of fighting me than of fighting his wife." At Free-
port it is related that " presently Lincoln and Douglas
came out on the balcony of the hotel (the Brewster
House). They stepped out arm in arm and the crowd
cheered and cheered. Neither Lincoln nor Douglas
attempted to say anything. They just stood there for a
minute bowing again and again to the crowd and every
time they bowed a bigger shout went up."
A survivor of the Ouincy debate relates the following
personal experience : " I was a boy when Lincoln and
Douglas debated in Quincy. After the speeches were
over men crowded to the platform and some of us boys
thought there was going to be a fight. We stood around
awhile ; some men were shaking hands with Lincoln and
others with Douglas. Pretty soon Douglas grabbed Lin-
coln by the arm and said, 'Come on, Abe ; let's go to the
hotel,' and they walked off together. That ended the
prospect of a fight and we boys went away somewhat dis-
appointed." (Statement of Captain Samuel H. Bradley,
of Mendon, Illinois, to the author.)
CHAPTER IX.
Lincoln's question at freeport and douglas' answer.
The feature of the Lincoln-Douglas debates about
which most has been written was the passage at Freeport,
in the second debate, in which Lincoln propounded the
question that brought forth from Douglas the reply that
sought to reconcile the Dred Scott decision with his
doctrine of " popular sovereignty." Lincoln's question
was:
" Can the people of a United States territory, in any
lawful way, against the wish of any citizen of the United
States, exclude slavery from its limits prior to the forma-
tion of a State constitution ? "
Douglas replied as follows : " I answer emphatically,
as Mr. Lincoln has heard me answer a hundred times
from every stump in Illinois, that in my opinion the people
of a Territory can, by lawful means, exclude slavery from
their limits prior to the formation of a State constitution.
[Enthusiastic applause.] Mr. Lincoln knew that I had
answered that question over and over again. He heard
me argue the Nebraska Bill on that principle all over the
State in 1854, in 1855, and in 1856, and he has no excuse
for pretending to be in doubt as to my position on that
question. It matters not what way the Supreme Court
may hereafter decide as to the abstract question whether
slavery may or may not go into a Territory under the
50
How Abraham Lincoln Became President. 51
Constitution, the people have the lawful means to intro-
duce it or exclude it as they please, for the reason that
slavery can not exist an hour or a day anywhere, unless
it is supported by local police regulations. ['Right,
right.'] Those police regulations can only be established
by the local Legislature ; and if the people are opposed to
slavery, they will elect representatives to that body who
will by unfriendly legislation effectually prevent the intro-
duction of it into their midst. If, on the contrary, they
are for it, their legislation will favor its extension.
Hence, no matter what the decision of the Supreme Court
may be on that abstract question, still the right of the
people to make a slave territory or a free territory is
perfect and complete under the Nebraska Bill. I hope
Mr. Lincoln deems my answer satisfactory on that
point."
It is said that prior to the Fxeeport debate Lincoln
had told some of his friends — men who were recognized
leaders of the new Republican party — of his purpose to
ask this question, and that they had unanimously advised
against it, on the ground that Douglas' answer was cer-
tain to give him a distinct advantage ; that Lincoln had
persistently ignored this argument and had declared that
he proposed to drive Douglas " into a corner," giving him
the alternative of two answers — one that would defeat
him for the Senate, the other that, while it probably would
reelect him to the Senate, would alienate the Southern
Democrats and thus defeat him for the presidency two
years later.
The truth is that in his reply to Lincoln's celebrated
question, Douglas said nothing that was not already quite
52 How Abraham Lincoln Became President.
well understood. Almost the identical statement had been
made in his speech at Bloomington six weeks before the
Freeport debate. Lincoln heard the Bloomington speech
(he occupied a seat on the platform) , and of course under-
stood Douglas' position perfectly.
But Lincoln's question at Freeport was important,
because it brought fresh attention to the point he sought
to make, namely, that " popular sovereignty," which gave
the people of a territory the right to have slavery or not
to have it, and the Dred Scott decision, which held that
the slave owner might take his " property " into any terri-
tory, were irreconcilable. The reply of Douglas at Free-
port augmented his breach with the South, but it was in
no sense the cause of the breach, as many writers have
erroneously assumed. Douglas had broken with the
South the year before over the Lecompton question.
Southern Democratic leaders already regarded him with
suspicion and disfavor.
CHAPTER X.
AFTER THE DEBATES — LINCOLN BECOMES A PRESIDENTL'VL
POSSIBILITY.
Douglas came out of the contest of 1858 the victor, so
far as immediate results were concerned; for he was
reelected to the Senate. On the popular vote the Repub-
licans had carried the State, but the Democrats still con-
trolled the Legislature. Lincoln accepted his defeat good-
naturedly and philosophically.
Douglas now loomed larger than ever on the political
horizon. The New York Herald (having in mind, of
course, the opposition of President Buchanan), declared
the election of Douglas " one of the most wonderful per-
sonal victories ever achieved by a public man." The
New York Evening Post said : " We may expect to see a
Douglas party immediately formed in all the States, with
its avowed champions and its recognized presses." " It
was manifest," said the New York Tribune of November
9, " that his triumph would render inevitable his nomina-
tion for President at Charleston in i860. He must either
be nominated or the Democratic party practically retires
from the contest, surrendering the Government to the
Republicans." The Boston Daily Advertiser of Novem-
ber 6 said : " We think it may now be regarded as
settled that the Democratic party will be thoroughly
reorganized upon the Douglas-Forney basis in anticipa-
53
54 How Abraham Lincoln Became President.
tion of the presidential campaign of i860. * * * The
South must understand perfectly well from the recent
results in Pennsylvania and Illinois that its only hope of
preventing an overwhelming victory of the Republicans
in i860 lies in adopting the Douglas creed. Some of the
Southern leaders of the party have already hastened to
do this."
But if the outcome was gratifying to Douglas, it was
far more important to Lincoln, although its effect upon
his political fortunes and upon the political events soon to
follow was not then perfectly clear. Prior to his debates
with Douglas nobody had thought of Lincoln in connec-
tion with the presidency. Back in June, just before he
made his " house divided " speech, a vote on presidential
candidates was taken on board a train crowded with dele-
gates to the Republican State convention. Every man
who had been mentioned for the presidency received a
few votes. Lyman Trumbull, then in the Senate, was
given seven votes, and Governor Bissell two votes. But
not a vote was cast for Abraham Lincoln.
But now the debates with Douglas had made Lincoln
a national figure, and already there were suggestions that
he was the logical candidate of the Republican party for
President in i860. It is significant that at Mansfield,
Ohio, on the night of November 5, three days after the
election, a mass meeting was held and resolutions were
adopted favoring Lincoln's nomination for President.
The New York Herald, early in November, an-
nounced : " The following ticket has been offered at Cin-
cinnati: For President, Abraham Lincoln of Illinois; for
Vice-President, John P. Kennedy of Maryland — with a
How Abraham Lincoln Became President. 55
platform embracing protection to American industry, the
improvement of the western rivers and harbors, and oppo-
sition to the extension of slavery by free emigration into
the territories." The Peoria Daily Message said : " Defeat
works wonders with some men. It has made a hero of
Abraham Lincoln. Two or three Republican journals of
different sections of the Union are beginning to talk of
him as a candidate for Vice-President, with Seward for
President ; and a Republican meeting held at Mansfield,
Ohio, raises him a notch higher by announcing him their
candidate for President." " He entered upon the canvass
with a reputation confined to his own State," said the
Chicago Press and Tribune. " He closes it with his
name a household word wherever the principles he holds
are honored and with the respect of his opponents in all
sections of the country." " No man of this generation
has grown more rapidly before the country than Lincoln
in this canvass," said the Lowell (Mass.) Journal and
Courier. The Illinois State Register, published at Spring-
field, recognized as the organ of Senator Douglas, said
December i : "If the Republican journals are to be taken
as an index, Mr. Lincoln is to be made a presidential
candidate upon the creed which he enunciated here in his
June convention speech,"
CHAPTER XI.
"what's the use of talking of me for president?"
says lincoln.
Thus Abraham Lincoln, in the space of a few months,
had risen to presidential stature. Out of the West had
come a new star in the political firmament. Lincoln for
President! The words must have had an enchanting
sound to this man of trials and struggles and disappoint-
ments. Yet he gave no sign of elation. He offered no
encouragement to the President-makers.
While the debates were in progress Jesse W. Fell of
Bloomington, then a prominent and active Republican
and a personal friend of Lincoln, had occasion to travel
through the East, and he came home impressed with the
favorable things being said about Lincoln in the Eastern
States. One evening in Bloomington he told Lincoln of
the reputation he was getting in other States and sug-
gested that he would make a formidable candidate for
President.
" What's the use of talking of me for President,"
replied Lincoln, " while we have such men as Seward,
Chase and others, who are so much better known to the
people, and whose names are so intimately associated with
the principles of the Republican party? * * * I
admit that I am ambitious and would like to be President.
I am not insensible to the compliment you pay me and the
56
How Abraham Lincoln Became President. 57
interest you manifest in the matter ; but there is no such
good luck in store for me as the presidency of these
United States." And in response to Mr. Fell's request for
a biographical sketch that he might publish in the East,
Lincoln said : " There is nothing in my early history that
would interest you or anybody else ; and, as Judge Davis
says, ' it won't pay.' Good night." And thus Lincoln
sought to dismiss the subject.
After the debates with Douglas, Lincoln went back to
his law office. The country was too busy sounding the
praises of the " big " men — the men who were on the
national stage in Washington and elsewhere — to give
much thought to Lincoln. For there were several men
who were energetically at work to capture the presiden-
tial nomination in i860 and who managed to keep in the
limelight. Lincoln was not among the number.
A wave of Lincoln sentiment, as we have seen, swept
over the country immediately following the debate with
Douglas, but to all appearances it had subsided. The
country v^/as not clamoring for Lincoln. But the events
of the ensuing year all conspired to make him the
inevitable nominee of his party for President. We may
guess that Lincoln continued thinking deeply, as little as
he talked, and that he was not unaware that the trend of
events made him more and more the logical presidential
candidate of the Republican party. But the country did
not so view the situation — not yet.
CHAPTER XII.
LINCOLN DECIDES THAT HE HAS A "FIGHTING CHANCE,"
AND STARTS IN TO GET ILLINOIS DELEGATION.
The talk of Lincoln for President went on quietly in
Illinois. The Republican party in the State had among
its leaders some very able men and astute politicians.
Judge David Davis, Judge Stephen T. Logan, John M.
Palmer, Richard J. Oglesby, Leonard Swett, O. H.
Browning, Jesse W. Fell — all were politicians of the
highest rank, and all were enthusiastically for the nomina-
tion of Lincoln for President.
Lincoln, all through the year 1859, gave his friends
little encouragement. " I must in all candor say I do not
think myself fit for the presidency," he wrote in April of
that year.
It was not until late in the year that Lincoln seems
to have considered himself seriously a presidential can-
didate. Early in i860 he apparently had decided that
he had at least a fighting chance, and that the thing of
first importance was to make sure of the Illinois delega-
tion.
For there was grave danger that the delegation to the
national convention from Lincoln's own State would be
divided. Lincoln was a mere chance — only a " pros-
pect." Many politicians in the State, anxious to " land
58
How Abraham Lincoln Became President. 59
with the winner," did not take kindly to the Lincoln can-
didacy.
The presidential candidate who towered above all
others was William H. Seward of New York. He had
been governor of New York, the greatest State in the
Union; he had almost completed a second term in the
United States Senate; he had been conspicuous in the
compromise legislation of 1850; he had fought the
Kansas-Nebraska Bill in 1854 ; he had become the expo-
nent of the " higher law," and, discussing the Dred Scott
Decision in 1858, he had announced the " irrepressible
conflict." The whole country knew Seward; he was a
master politician, and he had an organization that ex-
tended to every State that was to be represented at Chi-
cago; and all in all he seemed the logical and inevitable
nominee of his party for President.
In Illinois, Seward was making an organized effort to
get at least a part of the State delegation. The work was
being done quietly, but effectively. It was Seward's game
to split up the Illinois delegation, so that Lincoln would
appear weak in his home State. Lincoln knew well what
was going on, and he appreciated fully the importance of
checking the Seward movement and of preventing a divi-
sion of the State delegation. Out in Kansas a friend, who
seemed to be in a position to speak authoritatively, had
promised Lincoln the delegation from that State; but, to
Lincoln's chagrin, the convention instructed the delega-
tion for Seward.
The Seward movement made considerable headway in
the north end of the State, where many county conven-
tions either refrained from indorsing Lincoln or openly
60 How Abraham Lincoln Became President.
eulogized Seward. In the south end of the State the
Seward people were adroitly encouraging the candidacy
of Edward Bates of Missouri. On February 9, i860,
Lincoln wrote Norman B. Judd a letter, in which he said :
I am not in a position where it would hurt much for me not
to be nominated on the national ticket, but I am where it would
hurt some for me not to get the Illinois delegates. What I
expected when I wrote the letter to Messrs. Dole and others is now
happening. Your discomfited assailants are most bitter against
me, and they will, for revenge upon me, lay to the Bates egg in
the South, and to the Seward egg in the North, and go far toward
squeezing me out in the middle with nothing. Can you not help
me a little in this matter in your end of the vineyard?
Lincoln looked forward to the State convention with
many misgivings. The convention was to be held at
Decatur May 9. The " Seward eggs " promised to hatch
an unpleasantly large brood of delegates. But some
things were happening of which even Lincoln was not
advised — things not very big in themselves, but destined
to be tremendously important in ultimate results.
•
(;()\. KIC IIAKI) .1. OCLKSin.
(I'rum a i>:iiiitinK in tlic CovL-rnor's Office, State House, Springtielil, 111.)
It was " Dick " Oglesby, then a Decatur lawyer, who planned and
directed the " rail episode " in the State convention in i860, which stampeded
the eoiiventiiin for Lincoln.
CHAPTER XIII.
STORY OF A FENCE RAIL — HOW " DICK " OGLESBY AND
JOHN HANKS STAMPEDED THE STATE CONVENTION,
There lived in Decatur in i860 a brilliant young law-
yer and politician of the name of Richard J. Oglesby.
" Dick " Oglesby had made the acquaintance of Lincoln
when a mere boy ; he had been an ardent admirer of Lin-
coln for twenty years ; he believed in Lincoln and was
for him for President with all that vehement, rugged en-
thusiasm that distinguished the Oglesby of after years.
" Dick " Oglesby was astute, far-seeing ; he had
imagination, and Lincoln's magnificent possibilities as a
popular candidate for President loomed large in his mind.
He was acquainted with Lincoln's early life, his lowly
origin, his rise from poverty. He knew that out on the
Sangamon bottom, thirty years before, Lincoln, with the
aid of John Hanks, had split rails and built a fence.
Gov. Oglesby, a few months before his death in 1899,
related to the writer the story of his strategy to " kill the
Seward boom and commit the State unreservedly and
unitedly to Lincoln." Oglesby, like Lincoln, foresaw the
danger of a divided delegation, and he proposed to do
something that would make the delegation solidly and
enthusiastically for Lincoln.
" I had known John Hanks all my life," said Gover-
nor Oglesby to the writer. " He was a Democrat, but a
63
How Abraham Lincoln Became President. 65
great friend of Lincoln. Years before they had gone
together on a flatboating expedition down the Mississippi.
He had wanted to vote for Lincoln for United States
Senator, but he could not do this without voting for the
local Republican candidates for the Legislature. As
soon as he heard that Lincoln might be nominated for
President, he was bound to vote for ' old Abe.'
" One day I was talking with John about Abe, and
he said that in 1830 they made a clearing twelve miles
west of Decatur. There was a patch of timber — fifteen
or twenty acres — and they had cleared it ; they had
built a cabin, cut the trees, mauled rails, and put up a
fence.
" 'John,' said I, ' did you split rails down there with
old Abe?'
" ' Yes ; every day,' he replied.
" * Do you suppose you could find any of them now ? '
" ' Yes,' he said. ' The last time I was down there,
ten years ago, there were plenty of them left.'
" ' What are you going to do to-morrow ? '
" ' Nothing.'
" ' Then,' said I, ' come around and get in my buggy,
and we will drive down there.'
" So the next day we drove out to the old clearing.
We turned in by the timber, and John said :
" ' Dick, if I don't find any black-walnut rails, nor any
honey-locust rails, I won't claim it's the fence Abe and I
built.'
" Presently John said, ' There's the fence ! '
" * But look at these great trees,' said I.
" ' Certainly,' he answered. ' They have all grown
up since.'
JOHN HANKS.
Cousin of Abraham Lincoln. Hanks lielped Lincoln make three thousand
rails in the Sanijamon bottom in 1830. It was he who carried the " rail ban-
ner " into the Republican State Convention at Decatur, May 10, i860.
How Abraham Lincoln Became President, 67
" John got out. I stayed in the buggy. John kneeled
down and commenced chipping the rails of the old fence
with his knife. Soon he came back with black- walnut
shavings and honey-locust shavings.
" ' There they are ! ' said he, triumphantly, holding
out the shavings. ' They are the identical rails we made.'
" Then I got out and made an examination of the
fence. There were many black-walnut and honey-locust
rails.
" ' John,' said I, ' where did you cut these rails ? '
" ' I can take you to the stumps,' he answered.
" ' We will go down there,' said I.
" We drove about a hundred yards.
" ' Now,' said he, ' look ! There's a black-walnut
stump; there's another — another — another. Here's
where we cut the trees down and split the rails. Then
we got a horse and wagon, and hauled them in, and built
the fence, and also the cabin.'
" We took two of the rails and tied them under the
hind axle-tree of my new buggy, and started for town.
People would occasionally pass, and think something had
broken. We let them think so, for we didn't wish to tell
anybody just what we were doing. We kept right on
until we got to my barn. There we hid the rails until
the day of the convention.
" Before the convention met I talked with several
Republicans about my plan, and we fixed it up that old
John Hanks should take the rails into the convention.
We made a banner, attached to a board across the top
of the rails, with the inscription :
O -5
8|
I-
U E
rr, E
m
ui ^
oa be
Q .5
Q
— o "
O E
U o _, .
J-z:
eg
E«
c ►-
*>_
O CO
How Abraham Lincoln Became President. 69
ABRAHAM LINCOLN,
The Rail Candidate for President in i860.
Two rails from a lot of 3,000 made in 1830 by John Hanks and
Abe Lincoln, whose father was the first pioneer
of Macon county.
" After the convention got under way, I arose and
announced that an old Democrat desired to make a con-
tribution to the convention. The proceedings stopped,
and all was expectancy and excitement. Then in walked
old John with the rails. Lincoln was there in a corner,
trying to escape observation.
"'How are you, Abe?' said John, familiarly, as he
passed.
" ' How are you, John ? ' Lincoln answered with equal
familiarity.
" Then the convention cheered and cheered. There
were loud and persistent calls for a speech from Lincoln.
Abe had not known that the rails were to be brought in.
He hardly knew what to say about them.
" * Gentlemen,' he finally said, ' John and I did make
some rails down there ; and if these aren't the identical
rails we made, they certainly look very much like them.'
" From that time forward the rail was ever present
in the campaign. There was a great demand for Lin-
coln rails. John Hanks sold the two that he brought
into the convention. A man from Kentucky gave him
five dollars for one. The next day he went out and got
a wagon-load, and put them in my barn. He sold them
for a dollar apiece. Then other people went into the
business, and the supply seemed inexhaustible."
" By this time," says Lamon, one of Lincoln's biog-
/Ml
GENERAL JOHN M. PALMER.
Who introduced and eloquently advocated the resolution in the Decatur
Convention, May lo^ :86o, instructing the Illinois delegation for Lincoln.
General Palmer presided over the first Republican State Convention in Illi-
nois, held at Bloomington, May 29, 1856.
How Abraham Lincoln Became President. 71
raphers, writing of the rail episode in the Decatur con-
vention, " the innocent Egyptians began to open their
eyes — they saw plainly enough now the admirable
presidential scheme unfolded to their view."
The Seward boom was dead. " Dick " Oglesby and
old John Hanks and two fence rails had killed it. John
M. Palmer was at once on his feet with a resolution
declaring that " Abraham Lincoln is the first choice of
the Republican party of Illinois for the presidency," and
instructing " the delegates to the Chicago convention to
use all honorable means to secure his nomination and to
cast the vote of the State as a unit for him."
Thomas J. Turner, of Freeport, who had served in
Congress with Lincoln in 1847-8, was there as a cham-
pion of Seward, and he bitterly attacked the resolution.
Palmer replied in a speech of tremendous force, and
the resolution was adopted amid great enthusiasm.
Thus vanished the specter of a " divided delegation "
which had haunted Lincoln for many months. It turned
out, as Nicolay and Hay remark in their biography,
" that the Illinois Republicans sent a delegation to the
Chicago convention full of personal devotion to Lincoln
and composed of men of the highest standing and of
consummate political ability, and their enthusiastic efforts
in his behalf among the delegations from other States
contributed largely to the final result."
CHAPTER XIV.
ON THE EVE OF THE NATIONAL CONVENTION — SEWARD
ALMOST A CERTAINTY, BUT "aBE LINCOLN LOOMING
UP."
The Decatur convention which thus committed IIH-
nois to Lincoln was held only a week before the national
convention was to open in Chicago. It is a remarkable
fact that up to that time the Lincoln candidacy had been
almost entirely ignored by the newspapers of the East.
Within a few days the New York Tribune, the New York
Herald, and the New York Independent had discussed
presidential candidates. They had spoken of Seward,
Banks, Chase, Cameron, Bates, McLean, Sumner, Fes-
senden. Bell, Wade, Fremont, and others ; but strangely
enough there was not a single mention of Lincoln even
as a possibility.
Such was the situation only a few days before the
Republican national convention opened at Chicago on
the sixteenth of May, i860. The astute Illinoisans had
secured an important advantage (not then apparent
to the opposition), when the national convention was
brought to Chicago. As the delegates from far-off
States began gathering, the Lincoln boom rapidly took
formidable shape. On May 14 (Monday), two days
before the convention opened, the New York Herald, in
a dispatch from Chicago, declared that the contest had
narrowed down to Seward, Lincoln and Wade. The
73
74 How Abraham Lincoln Became President.
Boston Herald of the same day said : "Abe Lincoln is
looming up to-night as a compromise candidate and his
friends are in high spirits."
The Illinoisans, headed by Judge David Davis, worked
adroitly and indefatigably. Lincoln sentiment spread
with amazing rapidity among the delegates ; but it was
something of an undercurrent.
Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune,
then the most influential paper in the country, was there
with the proxy of a delegate from Oregon. He was not
in sympathy with the Seward movement, but was for
Judge Bates, of Missouri. But throughout the prelimi-
nary skirmishing and almost up to the moment of the
opening ballot, Greeley, astute observer that he was,
could see little chance to prevent Seward's nomination.
The convention was to convene on Wednesday, the
1 6th. On Saturday, the 12th, the Chicago correspondent
wired the Tribune — and this represented Greeley's judg-
ment, if the message was not actually written by him :
" Mr. Seward will lead, Mr. Bates will come next,
Mr. Chase will be third, having some New England
votes. Mr. Cameron will come next, and then Mr.
Lincoln. The latter is being pressed by the Illinois dele-
gations as a compromise candidate and would be accepted
by all the Northwest cheerfully."
On Tuesday night the Chicago correspondent wired
the Tribune that " Mr. Lincoln, of Illinois, is rising in
prominence." At 10 o'clock the same night the corre-
spondent wired :
" Dudley Field, of New York, and his friends have
joined the party of Judge Bates, and efforts are making
How Abraham Lincoln Became President. 75
to concentrate the opposition to Mr. Seward upon him,
Mr. Lincoln, however, seems to be gaining ground, and
his IlHnois friends are greatly encouraged to-night at the
prospect of his uniting the doubtful States and the
Northwest."
The convention was to open on the following day.
The Illinoisans had been working with great energy and
skill, and the Lincoln " boom " had grown rapidly, but
victory was not yet in sight. The Seward managers
hoped even yet, after the initial ballot, to get some of the
Illinois delegates away from Lincoln. Although the
Illinois delegation was under iron-clad instructions for
Lincoln, and although under the leadership of ardent Lin-
coln men, eight of the twenty-one delegates were rated
as lukewarm; they could not see that Lincoln had more
than a " fighting chance," and they were suspected of
being ready to go over to Seward. To add to the embar-
rassment of this situation, " Long John " Wentworth,
editor of the Chicago Democrat, although after the
Lincoln-Douglas debates he had declared that Lincoln
should be urged on the next national convention as the
candidate of Illinois for President, was now in the hotel
lobbies talking openly and loudly for Seward. Finally
the Lincoln managers detailed a man to follow Went-
worth and denounce him, and thus counteract his influ-
ence.
The Illinoisans had taken a long stride forward
when on Monday, after a three days' struggle, they won
over to Lincoln the entire delegation from Indiana.
They labored persistently and unceasingly with other
States. They impressed into service every man who
" A RAIL OLD WKSTKRN GENTLEMAN."
A caricature of the campaign of i860. From the Oldroyd collection, Wash-
ington, D. C.
How Abraham Lincoln Became President. 77
knew Lincoln to go out and talk about him — to tell of
his romantic life, his humble birth, his rail-splitting and
flat-boating, his fine character and his great ability. For
the delegates were looking for an " available " candidate
— for the man who could be elected. The principal
objection to Seward was that he could not carry the
doubtful States.
One of the things the Illinoisans had to combat was
the movement to nominate Lincoln for Vice-President.
General John M. Palmer, who was one of the most tire-
less workers for Lincoln, in a statement to the author in
1896, said :
" The Seward men were perfectly willing that he
should go on the tail of the ticket. We were not troubled
so much by their antagonism as by the overtures they
were constantly making to us. They literally over-
whelmed us with kindness. Judge David Davis came
to me in the Tremont House, greatly agitated at the
way things were going. He said : ' Palmer, you must
go with me at once to see the New Jersey delegation.'
I asked him what I could do. ' Well,' said he, * there
is Judge Blank (naming a prominent delegate from that
State), a grave and venerable judge, who is insisting that
Lincoln shall be nominated for Vice-President — and
Seward for President. We must convince the judge of
his mistake.'
" We went. I was introduced to Judge Blank and we
talked about the matter for some time. Judge Blank
praised Seward, but he was especially effusive in express-
ing his admiration for Lincoln. He thought that Seward
was clearly entitled to first place, and that Lincoln's
eminent merits entitled him to second place.
78 How Abraham Lincoln Became President.
" I listened for some time and then said : ' Judge
Blank, you may nominate Mr. Lincoln for Vice-President,
if you please; but I want you to understand that there
are forty thousand Democrats in Illinois who will support
this ticket if you will give them an opportunity ; but we
are not Whigs, and we never expect to be Whigs. We
will never consent to support two old Whigs on this
ticket. We are willing to vote for Mr. Lincoln with a
Democrat on the ticket ; but we will not consent to vote
for two old Whigs.'
" The indignation of Judge Blank I have seldom seen
equalled. Turning to Judge Davis he said fiercely :
" ' Judge Davis, is it possible that party spirit so pre-
vails in Illinois that Judge Palmer properly represents
public opinion? '
" ' Oh,' said Davis, affecting some distress at what I
had said, ' Oh, my God, Judge, you can't account for the
conduct of these old Locofocos. Will they do as Palmer
says? Certainly. There are forty thousand of them,
and, as Palmer says, not ad — d one of them will vote
for two Whigs.'
" We left Judge Blank in a towering rage. When
we were back at the Tremont House I said : ' Davis, you
are an infernal rascal to sit there and hear that man
berate me as he did. You really seemed to encourage
him.'
" Judge Davis said nothing, but chuckled as if he
greatly enjoyed the joke. This incident is illustrative of
the kind of work we had to do. We were compelled to
resort to this argument — that the old Democrats now
ready to affiliate with the Republican party would not
ruiiMat>A\. \t ..I -^c -J, i»<ui.
A ! ! 1 ; A H ••
A i'i>li(ic8l Karth-jiiab- '
THE PRAIRIES ON FIRE
"•It LlN<;oi ■-
II A H II V \ T I. .« ,
riiANciii \. iiorrHAK,
<V 1 b I. I \ M II I T I. i: B ,
r-'ddatf ■irtthiiMicr
■^•1* to (t>-nmW 5-
GREAT LINCOLN RALLY — SPRINGFIELD, AUGUST 8, i860.
Reproduced from the Daily State Journal of August 9, i860. This was
the greatest rally of the campaign. Mr. Lincoln was present and spoke
°'''^..^A 1^ °"'y campaign speech of that year. The newspaper account says-
At the conclusion of these remarks, Mr. Lincoln descended from the
platform and with difficulty made his way through the vast throng who
eagerly pressed around to take him by the hand. By an adroit movement
he escaped on horseback, while the crowd were besieging the carriage to
which It was expected he would return."
How Abraham Lincoln Became President. 81
tolerate two Whigs on the ticket — in order to break up
the movement to nominate Lincoln for Vice-President."
One part of the game of the Lincoln men was a fight
for time. Their candidate was gaining, and the longer
the nomination was deferred the better his chances. It
had been the purpose to name the candidate for President
on Thursday, the 17th. Had that been done, Mr. Seward
probably would have been nominated. But the Illinoisans
shrewdly maneuvered for an adjournment — and got it.
During all Thursday night the Illinoisans worked
desperately. Most of them did not go to bed at all. The
supporters of other candidates also were busy. The
problem was how to unite the opposition to Seward on an
available candidate.
At midnight Thursday night the New York Tribune
correspondent wired his paper:
"Though there is an increased disposition to gather
about Mr. Lincoln, no effective combination of opposi-
tion is yet formed. Ohio is uncertain, Pennsylvania gives
no positive assurances, and when New Jersey breaks but
half goes to Mr. Seward. Part of the Missouri delega-
tion prefer Mr. Seward to Mr. Lincoln.
"They want a conservative with whom to make a
winning fight, or a straight-out radical for a contest of
pure principle.
"New England is anxious and doubtful. She is
puzzled. She hesitates both to desert Mr. Seward and to
force him on the doubtful States. They are likely to be
much cut up. The Massachusetts delegation have been
in a labored conference against and show an increased
disposition to leave Mr. Seward and go for Mr. Lincoln."
82 How Abraham Lincoln Became President.
At the same hour (midnight) Horace Greeley per-
sonally wired the Tribune:
" My conclusion, from all that I can gather to-night,
is that the opposition to Governor Seward can not con-
centrate on any candidate and that he will be nominated."
When the convention on Friday began its third day's
session, the Seward men were still confident. They
seemed to regard Seward's nomination as a foregone
conclusion, and were now casting about for a satisfac-
tory running mate.
w E «
2 l£
due
CHAPTER XV.
WHAT HAPPENED IN THE CONVENTION — LINCOLN THE
VICTOR.
The convention was held in the old " Wigwam," a
building erected for the occasion at the corner of Market
and Lake streets. Eleven thousand persons packed the
Wigwam. On the floor of the convention were some of
the most distinguished men of the nation. In the galler-
ies, hundreds of women, " gay in the high-peaked, flower-
filled bonnets and bright shawls and plaids of the day,"
added to the brilliancy of the scene. Outside, surging in
the streets, were from twenty to thirty thousand persons,
eagerly awaiting some word of the proceedings within,
shouted down by sentinels from the top of the building.
There were no nominating speeches — only the formal
presentation of candidates' names. Norman B. Judd, in
presenting Lincoln's name, said :
" Mr. President, I beg leave to offer as a candidate
before this convention for President of the United States
the name of Abraham Lincoln of Illinois."
That was all. No fulsome eulogy, no long-winded
speech. The time for action had arrived.
There was a demonstration as each candidate was
placed in nomination. The Seward men set up a deafen-
ing shout, so loud and long that it momentarily discon-
85
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en rt
E "Sr.
^ -
How Abraham Lincoln Became President. 87
certed the Lincoln men. But they quickly recovered, and
when Indiana seconded Lincoln's nomination pandemo-
nium broke loose. It was evident that an overwhelming
majority of the crowd in the galleries was for " Old Abe."
" No language can describe it," wrote Leonard Swett,
describing the scene. "A thousand steam whistles, a
tribe of Comanches, headed by a choice vanguard from
pandemonium, might have mingled in the scene unno-
ticed."
The balloting proceeded rapidly. The first ballot
resulted: Seward, I73>^ ; Lincoln, 102; Cameron,
50^4 ; Chase, 49; Bates, 48; Dayton, 14; McLean, 12;
Collamer, 10 ; scattering, 6.
There being no choice, the second ballot was pro-
ceeded with, after Simon Cameron's name had been with-
drawn. This ballot resulted : Seward, 184^4 ; Lincoln,
181; Chase, 42^; Bates, 35 ; Dayton, 10; McLean, 8;
scattering, 4.
The third ballot proceeded amid breathless silence.
As the last State was called, Lincoln had 230^^ votes,
or within i^^ votes of the number necessary to nominate
him. Before the result was announced Mr. Carter, of
Ohio, arose and corrected the vote of that State, giving
Lincoln four more votes, or 2^2 more than the required
number.
Lincoln was nominated, and now followed a wild
struggle to " get into the band-wagon." State after
State changed its vote to Lincoln. As finally announced
the third ballot stood: Lincoln, 354; Seward, iio>^.
The men on the roof bellowed down to the people in
the streets that Lincoln was nominated. " The first roar
7 '- ": -.-'.K,>i;:r4
'!:'.i!'i;i:!i:!
How Abraham Lincoln Became President. 89
of cannon," says the New York Tribune's account, " soon
mingled itself with the cheers of the people, and the same
moment a man appeared in the hall bringing a large
painting of Mr. Lincoln. * * * Two cannons sent
forth roar after roar in quick succession. Delegates tore
up the stakes and boards bearing the names of the sev-
eral States and waved them aloft over their heads, and
the vast multitude before the platform were waving hats
and handkerchiefs."
It was alleged afterward that the Lincoln managers,
having charge of admissions, had packed the galleries
with shouters for " Old Abe." " I do not believe the
convention was unfairly ' packed ' in Lincoln's interest,"
says Senator Shelby M. Cullom, who was present.
" True, Lincoln's friends had charge of the Wigwam,
and I have no doubt that the tickets of admission were
judiciously distributed by them, and Lincoln had the gal-
leries with him. That was inevitable, owing to the loca-
tion of the convention in Chicago. But the cheering for
Lincoln was not the result of any prearranged plan ; it
was spontaneous ; it was infectious, too, and it captured
the convention." (Statement of Senator Cullom to the
author.)
While the national convention was in progress. Mr.
Lincoln remained in Springfield and without apparent
excitement or anxiety awaited the news from Chicago.
Once or twice he joined in a game of " hand ball," then
the favorite pastime of the professional men of the town.
On Friday morning (the day of the nomination), he
called at the office of James C. Conkling, a prominent
lawyer, threw himself upon a lounge and remarked
90 How Abraham Lincoln Became President.
rather wearily : " Well, Jim, I guess I'll go back to prac-
ticing law." Mr. Conkling had just returned from Chi-
cago, and Mr. Lincoln was anxious to know what he
thought of the outlook.
" I told him the tendency was to drop Seward," says
Mr. Conkling — " that the outlook was very encouraging.
He listened attentively and thanked me. * * * He
was not very sanguine of the result. He did not express
the opinion that he would be nominated." (Statement of
James C. Conkling to the author in 1896.)
After leaving Mr. Conkling's office, Mr. Lincoln had
gone to the dry goods store of Ninian W. Edwards &
Co., on an errand for Mrs. Lincoln. " I had started
out," Mr. Lincoln afterward told a friend. T. W. S. Kidd,
"and 'Jack' Smith (a member of the firm) walked to
the door with me. As we stood there talking I heard a
shout go up near the telegraph office. Then Jim Conk-
ling's oldest boy came running up and told me I was
nominated. That was the first I knew of it." " Jim
Conkling's oldest boy," who thus " notified " Mr. Lin-
coln, was Clinton L. Conkling, now a prominent lawyer
of Springfield.
Mr. Lincoln, in a few minutes, was surrounded by
friends, who came hurrying up to congratulate him. He
thanked them, but said he " must be going." " There is
a little woman down on Eighth street," said he. " and I
must go and tell her about this."
Very soon after the Chicago convention, it became
clear to the country that the Republicans had named their
strongest man. The fence rails that " Dick " Oglesby
and old John Hanks had hauled in from the Sangamon
How Abraham Lincoln Became President. 91
bottom and that had electrified the State convention at
Decatur were now to make their appeal to the popular
fancy.
" Mr. Lincoln's romantic personal history," wrote
Horace Greeley in the Tribune, " his eloquence as an
orator, and his firm personal integrity, give augury of
a successful campaign — one of the 1840 stamp."
It proved to be far more unique and impressive than
the " hard cider " campaign of 1840. The fence-rail
was everywhere in evidence. It was carried aloft in
parades ; flaming banners fluttered from it at rallies ;
glee clubs sang its praises ; campaign clubs called them-
selves " Rail Splitters " and " Rail Maulers " ; and
brawny-armed men mounted on huge wagons split rails
as the procession moved along.
Quickly the story of Lincoln came out — the story
which two years earlier he had declared " would interest
no one " — the marvelous story of his meek and lowly
birth, his struggles, his triumphs — and the world was
amazed.
*******
The momentous events of the succeeding months —
the eventful campaign of i860, with the Democracy
divided between Douglas at the North and Breckenridge
at the South — the election of Lincoln in November and
the gathering storm of secession — can not be narrated
at length in this little volume. Responsibility weighed
heavily upon the President-elect as he prepared for his
departure for Washington.
CHAPTER XVI.
FAREWELL !
On a somber morning in February, 1861, Mr. Lincoln,
accompanied by his family and others, took his leave for
the national capital. Several hundred of his neighbors —
men and women whom he had known almost a lifetime —
gathered at the old Great Western station. Mr. Lincoln
came out of the car and, standing on the rear platform,
thus spoke with deep emotion :
" My Friends : No one not in my situation can appreciate
my feeling of sadness at this parting. To this place and the kind-
ness of these people I owe everything. Here I have lived a
quarter of a century, and have passed from a young to an old
man. Here my children have been born, and one is buried. I
nowf leave, not knowing when or whether ever I may return, with
a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington.
Without the assistance of that Diyine Being who ever attended
him, I can not succeed. With that assistance, I can not fail.
Trusting in Him who can go with me, and remain with you, and
be everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet
be well. To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers
you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell."
The train rolled slowly away to the eastward. A
little city in a western State was sending its first citizen
to become the greatest President of the greatest republic
of the world.
93
Ff.
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